Lower-Cholesterol-Level Blog, is a blog that I use to put and share all info regarding cholesterol, ways to lower the bad cholesterol level and ways to increase the good cholesterol level. By knowing the fact about cholesterol, you've just lowering the risk of heart attack or stroke. However treat the all the info in this blog (eg: Info, product, claims etc..) as information purpose only, do not take it as a substitute to advice of a real physician or any other health care professional.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

How to Lower Cholesterol Level With Herbs - Three Great Herbs to Build Your Cholesterol Plan Around

How to lower cholesterol with herbs is a story of old meeting new. With the idea and understanding of blood cholesterol and its importance to overall health being a fairly new revelation the idea of managing cholesterol with plant based medicines may at first glance seem a little strange. Particularly when one takes into account that many of the best herbs for lowering cholesterol have been around for thousands of years. On the other hand one could make the case that if specific herbs are still being used after all that time there is a pretty good chance they work.

How to lower cholesterol with herbs is a fairly straightforward approach known a full spectrum medicine. This approach looks at the big picture rather than the more narrow minded approach often implemented in the practice of modern medicine. For instance a full spectrum approach to addressing how to lower cholesterol with herbs might include combining a red yeast rice supplement with diet, exercise, and stress reduction techniques. As I said, taking a big picture approach. On the other hand the narrow approach might suggest a few small diet changes but would attempt to drive cholesterol levels down by dramatically reducing the livers ability to convert carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into cholesterol. This heavy handed approach has lead to complaints of muscle aches, pains, and muscle cramps along with a myriad of other side effects including headache, fatigue, low blood pressure, nausea, gas, constipation, and in rare cases a breakdown of muscle tissue called rhabdomyolysis.

In order to determine how to lower cholesterol with herbs we must first have an idea of who the players are. In this article we will try to give you our version of the big three and hopefully you can use it as a starting point for learning more about how to lower cholesterol with herbs.

Garlic: An discussion of how to lower cholesterol with herbs must include garlic. After all one would assume that anything that can scare off vampires should be able to at least drop my cholesterol a few points. The main active ingredient in garlic is allicin and has been shown in clinical studies to both lower cholesterol and improve blood pressure. It is also referred to as natural penicillin because of its antibiotic properties. Garlic is one of the oldest herbs known to man having been used in the practice of Chinese herbal medicine for thousands of years.

Red Yeast Rice: In recent years this ancient remedy has come under scrutiny by FDA due to claims its main active ingredient called monacolin K, which inhibits the production of cholesterol by stopping the action of a key enzyme in the liver (e.g., HMG-CoA reductase) too closely resembles the statin medication lovastatin and thus should be regulated as a drug. Nevertheless, few would argue with the fact that red yeast rice does lower cholesterol and there have been major studies in recent years confirming this. RYR also aids in digestion and has been used in the practice of Chinese herbal medicine as a dietary general health supplement for over 1500 years.

Guggul: When discussing how to lower cholesterol with herbs one cannot leave out guggul. It is perhaps the most effective natural cholesterol buster that no one outside of natural medicine has heard of. Guggul significantly lowers serum triglycerides and cholesterol as well as LDL and VLDL cholesterols (bad cholesterol). At the same time, it raises levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol). As antioxidants, guggulsterones (ketonic steroid compounds) keep LDL cholesterol from oxidizing, an action which protects against atherosclerosis.

Certainly there is always more to learn about how to cholesterol with herbs. But in conclusion if you use garlic, red yeast rice, and guggul as your foundation to build your cholesterol reduction plan from you likely will be very success regardless which natural cholesterol reducing remedy you ultimately choose.

Rob D. Hawkins is an enthusiastic advocate for the use of safe and effective high quality alternative health products and natural living, with over 10 years experience in the field. Learn more about natural remedies and natural health at Purchase Remedies.com.